Adjustable supporting device.



. L. DEMING.

ADJU E ORTING D E.

APPLICATION D MAY 31,

1,125,668. Patented Jan. 19,' 1915.

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WILLIAM L.v DEMING., 0F SALEM, OHIO.

ADJUSTABLE SUPPORTING DEVICE.

Specicaton of Letters Patent.

patenten aan. ie, tais.

appiicaiien inea may 31, 1913. seriai No. 770,908.

To all whom it may concern Be it known thatI, WiLLiAM L. DEMING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Salem, in the county of Columbiana and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Adjustable Supporting Devices, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the'accompanying drawings.

rPhis invention relates to a supporting device adapted: to be used in connection with articles to beaccuratelyleveled, and is particularlyadapte-d for use with game tables.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a supporting device in a form whichn shall be extremely simple, easily applied and operated, and not liable to get out of order. Another Objectis to endow such va devicewith means preventing its marring or injuring any highly polished surface upon which it may rest. i

A feature of my invention is that the supporting pad is capable of conforming to the angle of the supporting surface, and thus insure the necessary stability to retain the article being supported in position.

The device by which I have accomplished these objects I will now describe in connection with the drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a game board or game table supported by my device upon another table. Fig. 2 is a vertical central section of the leg of a table, showing my device in position. Fig. 3 is a plan of the lower part of the supporting device, being a horizontal section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2. f 4

In the drawings, 5 indicates a game table, the apron (or leg) 6 of which carries my supporting device. In this view, the device is shown as resting upon a larger tabled, which thereby supports the game table. The leveling device consists of a specially formed rotatable member socketed in the table leg, andy having a screw extending through a nut within the socket.

In Fig. 2, 7 designates the cylindrical body or shank/of the rotatable member from the upper end of which extends the integral screw 8, which occupies a nut 9 within the socket. This nut is preferably a standard hexagon nut, and is carried in the upper end of the bore l0` of the socket. The upper end of the screw S is surrounded by a smaller bore whereby there is formed a shoulder at 13 against which the nut rests,

and which receives the downward thrust of the table.

My device is applicable to any portion of the table as, for example, the lower edge of the apron as well as to the leg post. This is desirable where the game board is without legs and where the ends of the'game board overhang the supporting table, in which'case it becomes necessary to apply the device to the apron of the game board, as shown in F ig. 1.

Ihe bore 10 is somewhat smaller in diameter than the greatest distance across the corners of the nut 9, and accordingly, when the nut is forced into position it makes small grooves in the wood surrounding the bore, asindicated in broken lines at 14 in Fig. 2. rI'his provides an engagement, of the wood of the leg with the nut 9, to prevent it turning with lthe screw 8. v

rIhe cylindrical shank 7 iits with'reasonable snugness into the bore 10, forming a very steady support.` At the lower end of the shank disk is a head 16 integral with the shank. As shown in the drawing the diameter of this head is slightly larger than the distance through the lower part of the table leg, so that it may be readily grasped by the handl when it is in its uppermost position close to the bottom of the leg as well as when it is lowered away from the end of the leg. The periphery of this head is suitably knurled to facilitate turning it by hand. The shank may also be provided with a hole l5 for the insertion of av suitableA pin to turn the body if it does not turn easily enough by the knurled head.

Rigid with the lower side of the head 16, and.in aXial alinement with the head and shank, isa rounded knob or ball 18 resting upon a plate 19. This plate has prongs 2O punchedfrom it and bent to engage the knob 18, thus forming a ball-and-socket joint between the rotatable member, and the plate.

.They plate 19 is made somewhat saucer shaped, and has small projections 21 made integral with the plate at its periphery. Iheseprojections are bent downwardly and inwardly to engage the periphery of a suit able pad 23. This pad may be conveniently made of leather, felt or similar material and is shown as somewhat greater in thickness than the length of the prongs 2l, so that .any polished surface, upon which it rests,

will not be scratched by these prongs.

It will be seen that the ball-and-soclf-et llt) engagement of the padded foot with the adjusting member of the device, allows the pad 23 to rest upon any polished surface Whether even or not, without turning with the head 16, thus the liability of injuring a polished surface attendant upon using the ordinary adjusting devices is entirely eliminated.

My construction allows the screw 8, the shank 7, the head 16 and the knob 18 to be madeintegral, thus it is possible to manufacture this member on a lmodern screw machine with greatrapidity and economy. The nut 18 may he a standard commercial hexagon nut, and hence, is very cheap. rIhe plate 19 may be of a sheet metal punching having the lingers 20 and 21 integral therewith, thus allowing it to be made' very quickly in one or two operations. The pad 23, as before stated, may be made of leather, telt, or other suitable material, which may be cheaply procured. Thus it will be seen that my device is so designed that it may be very cheaply *manufactured Furthermore, my device may be very quickly and easily applied to the leg of any piece of furniture with which it is to be used, it being only necessary to make the bores 1l and 1() in axial alinement, thus forming the shoulder 13, and then to force the nut into position.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a supporting device of the character described, the combination with an adjustable member having an' integral spherical head, of a pad provided with means' for embracing the head suiiciently to retain the pad in position on the head.

Q. In a supporting device of the character described, the combination with an adjustable member having a spherical head, of a pad comprising a disk of resilient material, anda plate, said plate adapted to embrace the resilient material and the head suiiiciently to retain the pad in position on the head.

3. In a supporting device of the character described, the combination with 'a member carried by the device to be supported having a knob, of a pad of resilient material, a plate interposed between said knob and the pad adapted to engage the pad, having upwardly extending prongs adapted to embrace the knob.

Ll. In a device of the character described, the combination of an adjustable member comprising a shank, a head on the shank, a spherical knob carried by the head, and a pad of resilient material provided with means 'lorembracing the knob for more than a hemisphere.

5. In a supporting device of the character described, the combination with an adjustable member comprising a shank,of a head on the shank, a spherical knob carried by the head, a pad of resilient material, and a plate interposed between the pad and the spherical knob adapted to engage the resilient pad and having upwardly extending integral prongs embracing the head suiiiciently to retain the pad in position on the head.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto ailiX my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM L. DEMING.

Witnesses ALBERT H. BATES, JUSTIN W. MACKLIN. 

